Solid perfromance from Doornbos at Monza

In a race without any retirements, Robert Doornbos finished in 18th spot for the Minardi F1 Team today. At the 5,793 kilometer long Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Doornbos stayed well ahead of his teammate Christijan Albers and Jordan driver Narain Karthikeyan. Juan-Pablo Montoya handed McLaren their third consecutive race win in today's Italian Grand Prix.

At the start of the 53 lap race at the historic circuit nearby Milan, Doornbos won two positions as Mark Webber and David Coulthard collided with each other. After that, the Dutchman in Italian duty temporary moved up one position as Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro made his first pitstop in lap 11. After Doornbos visited his team for his first stop, the native of Rotterdam rejoined behind Monteiro, but ahead of his teammate Christijan Albers.

Untill his second pitstop in lap 34, Doornbos did not gain any positions, but he set impressive comparable laptimes to Red Bull veteran David Coulthard (P16) and Tiago Monteiro (P17). With less than 20 laps to go, Doornbos kept putting pressure on the Jordan driver, but saw no chance to repeat his performance of Turkey where he finished ahead of both of the yellow cars. Doornbos finished his fourth Formula One race in 18th position, ahead of his teammate and Narain Karthikeyan.

Robert Doornbos:

"I can look back at a positive weekend. In all Free Practises, qualifying and the race I cwas on the pace. Because of low grip it was hard to catch Monteiro in my first stint, but on from the second half of the race things started to get better. I'm looking forward of going to Spa-Francorchamps now, as I preserve good memories after I won there in F3000 last year. Not only is it a fun track to drive, it will also be my home race so I expect to see a lot of Dutch flags around the circuit!"

-www.robertdoornbos.com-